About this Object:  

Some of the spiral galaxies give us beautiful, face-on views of it's structure, and they seldom disappoint.  But there's just something about a really nice, edge-on galaxy!  NGC 891 and NGC 4565 are at the top of that list, but perhaps none is more thrilling than M104, the "Sombrero Galaxy."   Perhaps this is because it does, indeed, tend to look like the mexican hat when viewed through a telescope.  And make no mistake, this galaxy does look good in a wide variety of telescopes, regardless of aperture.  But perhaps what makes M104 so exciting is the fact that it's slightly inclined...a mere 6 degrees.  This seems to be just enough to tease the viewer of details in the galaxy disk.  But not only that, it gives us a great perspective of how thin these spiral galaxies actually are.   Likewise, M104 gives us a glow, where old globular clusters tend to reside all along the outskirts.